What’s Offensive?

Linda,

I do understand your original point. I do, but it is hard for me to separate myself from all of who I am and really see this objectively. I think I would offend if I denied who I am and simply lived with the title given to me based soley on my phenotype. For example, I would hate to be a FB and be forgotten by future generations because they were mixed bloods who were made to live as society dictated.

I had to come into the realization of what slaves endured, just as I am coming into awareness of how deeply Natives have been affected by the presence of WHItes and Africans. Truth is, so much is actually offensive. Just as I will not allow myself to forget all of the attrocities of the “peculiar institution”, I will not deny all of what brought NDNS and AFicans together. For some, it may have been under shameful circumstances, for some it may have been beautiful.

-Deirdre

Hello all.

You can’t fix the past, anymore than you can get the lactose intolerance and Von Willibrand’s disease out of your body.

Here is an issue that we can all weigh in on, on a volutary basis of course….and that is…being Indians of mixed blood ( and lets be frank here, on the east coast at least, that applies to 98% of all Indians, be they fed recognized or not)…being of mixed blood….how are we going to conduct ourselves? Do we bend to the pressures of other groups who want to capture us into their demographic and force us to identify with them? And an even deeper question…do you as a person really, perhaps secretly in your heart, want to be part of that demographic? What does your heart tell you to do?

This is a very human question…..but the forces of this world place us in a position where demands are put upon us to do this very thing. As mixed blood people who claim NA heritage…will we then be forced to hyphenate what we are? This happens…this happens especially when talking to OTHER people who aren’t in the position that we are. When we do that kind of hyphenating among ourselves…what are we doing? Is it any wonder that other tribes of Indians think that we are neither fish nor fowl? We keep doing that to ourselves. And as we see ourselves….we will project this kind of waffeling to other people. They will continue to judge, accept, or reject us based, IN PART, on how we describe ourselves.

Now I am listed as white by our great government. Both of my parents are listed as white. Their parents are listed as white. My mother, in fact, was about as white as any hollywood babe was ever white…whitey whitey white. Yet she and my father were a devoted and loving couple. My father was thrown away by his Indian mother…be she listed as white or what, she described herself as a Haliwa…LONG before they were recognized as anything but a bunch of crazy people who thought that they were Indians. My mother’s family took my Dad into their hearts and home. Cared for his wife and daughter while he was fighting WWII. Sheltered him when he came home until he could buy a couple of acres of an old cotton field and build his family a home…all by himself. This is what I care about. That they had good blood and good values. What their respective ancestors did in the past, victim, victimizers, easy or uneasy bedfellows, is really beyond my knowing. I could put flowers on all their graves…if I had any idea where they were buried…which I don’t.

And this is the best way to keep it, I think. If I had to refight all their battles and cry all their tears, I wouldn’t be able to do that for myself in my own life.

Now back to Indian adoption. Because of war and disease, many tribes adopted people of all races just to keep their numbers up. A lot of these adoptions were not voluntary, this needs to be said. But it happened anyway. These adoptees were not singled out as not being part of the tribe. Tribes KNEW that they faced extinction. They made a decision to either coalese with other tribes and become a blended tribe, and/or take in new members to live as they did. They knew that they couldn’t beat demographics with their own numbers and rates of reproduction and infant mortality. Mixed blood Indians began at least 300 years ago…if not sooner than that.

So what are we going to do? When we see the photos of each other, when we meet in real life…its going to be pretty apparent what the dominant phenotype is. Is this going to shock anyone? Is it going to cause other people in our group here to secretly mark you down as a black, white, lookin’ more Indian, less Indian……I hope not. We have all been very upfront about what we are and where we came from, and what we feel.

Our Indian ancestors…and they aren’t the only ones we’ve got….adopted in other people to keep themselves from going extinct. We all know this. If we don’t identify ourselves as Indians first and foremost, then their hopefull plan would have come to nothing. They knew what they were doing. Do we know what we are doing?

Regards,

Lynne

Lewis, I don’t have a problem with anyone here. Every person has the right to feel the way they do. I just want change for ndn people. I want us to be able to acknowledge who we are without people slamming us. So may mixed bloods, As Lynne was saying, decided not to acknowledge that part of themselves decided to betray that part of themselves. This is not what our ancestors wanted. If my family had wanted us to leave our ways behind I would not have Nottoway, Saponi, probably some Tuscarora and Nansemond blood in my veins. I may well have some Mattaponi too just not sure of it all right now. I was simply told ndn my whole life but little did they know they were giving me hints all along so I would know my people when I met them. I don’t think my grandmother knew which tribe because we are so many but the dominate vein that was passed down was definitely Nottoway. When I talk with my Nottoway brothers and sisters it is like we just click. Once many many years ago my grandmother said Sioux which is what lead me to the Saponi. She didn’t say Blackfoot nor did she say Saponi she said Sioux. This was back in the 60’s. Ido not know how she came up with Sioux but she did. We have one person left our lines and her history is sooooo elusive but it has been passed down she was a full blood. Everyone connected to this family claims native blood and they all say she was a full blood. Her name was Rebecca and that is all I know for sure. She was born in the early 1800’s but we have no idea where she was born. So many of my cousins claim she was Cherokee but I think most likely she was Nottoway. What I do knowfor sure is my family have been mixed bloods since the late 1600’s. Marriage after marriage between mixed bloods with this full blood entering our family in the 1800’s. My desire now is to find out where she came from andwho she was and who are my family members from her lines. Inthis particular line she could have been anyone. They were wanderers who always returned to North Carolina to live out their lives.

Linda

you know I think Rebecca is so important because I carry her mtDNA. Mine would match hers exactly. At some point I plan to take the mtDNA test and see if there are any matches anywhere on this planet so I will finally know where Rebeca came from. Another odd thing is that Rebecca had many daughters, Lurana her daughter had 4 daughter 0 sons, Mary susan her daughter had 3 daughters Nancy her daughter had 4 daughters and her daughter Katie had 7 daughters and 1 son. My mother had 3 daughters and 1 son. Some pattern huh? Girls Girls Girls LOL If you want a house full of girls have your children with a woman from this line LOL my two sisters both have 2 girls and 0 sons…I have one child and he’s a boy….it does happen once in a while LOL…

Linda

I have this, both my daughters have this, and all three of us also are lactose intolerant. We also don’t digest sugar very well. We all have a very low tolerance for alchohol….it may be the sugar in it….I don’t know. But sugar, alchohol and milk make us sick. And we are bleeders.

Lynne

So much has been discussed here, it’s really quite interesting! By my sn you all can see how I define myself…..which doesn’t really do me justice because I haven’t given my Caucasian roots a place in my name…..I guess I would have to consider myself tri-racial. I don’t wish to offend anyone.

I’m kinda late on the subject of appearance and hair……I’m brown skinned. And my hair is soft and naturally wavy jet black…..curly when wet. I’ve got black eyes that scare even my sister and dad when I stare or glare at them. Black people tell us that we have “that good hair”. What’s interesting though, is that one of my brothers and one sister have reddish hair. All of my neices and nephews have reddish brown hair. We think this comes from my mother’s side. They are freckle-faced, fair-skinned, light-eyed and brown/red-haired people. The heavy dark NDN roots are on my father’s side.

Other NDNs just look at us w/recognition, but they don’t say anything. I always wondered why. Of the 7 or so tribes on my father’s side, only the Pamunkey’s have been really open-armed to us. Oh, and of course the Blackfoot Saponi’s here!!! Thank you guys for this forum!!:)

Oh, by the way…..how do we add photos on here?

Thanx for letting me throw in my 2 cents!

Yes, Like Quest, said, with VonWillebrands you bleed freely. Your clotting time is not very good. A shaving nick can bleed for 35 minutes, leaving bloody footprints….it just won’t stop. Half a roll of toilet paper can be used on a nick.

I have tried “Stop Bleed”, a brand name spray on that is supposed to seal off your skin. If its just a paper cut…which can bleed for 10 minutes….it works. But you have to have a fairly superficial cut. Stop Bleed works in most minor instances. I carry it with me to keep blood off the mail when I get those cuts.

If you suspect that you have this clotting disorder…please get a test. It really helps before you have any kind of surgery, because they can give you something to help you clot normally before you do.

We had a thread about Indian diseases that …perhaps…all of us should be aware of.

Lactose intolerance can take many forms from one person to the next. It can make you vomit, or give you painful stomach distress, or gas, or affect your lower digestive tract in that it constipates you very badly. Some people can eat yogurt, but not ice cream, some people can eat cheese but not drink milk. I’ve found that it is best to cut out dairy altogether. I eat the kind of cheese that isn’t really cheese, the horrible “cheese food”, but not often. ( its mostly vegitable oil, but more companies are putting Real Dairy in their cheese food, and you can only eat so much of that stuff). If you suspect that you are lactose intolerant ( which can develop later in life), cut out dairy and see if you feel better. Or severly limit the dairy in things you like to eat…only eat really small amounts.

Its my crank theory that one reason so many Indians are obese, is that they don’t digest sugar that well, and over time will develop diabetes. I have trouble with sugar myself, and I wonder if anyone else here has the same problem? I can eat fruit, but cake is unpalletable to me. I use fake sugar, or I use apple juice in cooking instead of sugar. I can eat bread…but I can smell the sugar in bread and I avoid bread with a high sugar content.

Regards,

Lynne